Bliss Counselling | Knowledge is power.
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Knowledge is power.

Whether you’re just starting to think about therapy or swear by your weekly appointment, these hand-picked resources will empower you with tools to make your life more blissful.

Welcome to What's your Bliss - a podcast on what's coming up in gender, sex and relationships, directly from our couch! Each episode our therapists will share stories, ideas, theories, perspectives and questions, intended to feed your curiosity about what brings you Bliss! For our first episode, Valentina Messier describes how she uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in relationship and sex therapy! Considering multiple perspectives and the situation, anchoring yourself, and knowing your individual and relational values can be helpful...

The consultation is a short and free phone call, approximately 15 minutes. This brief meet and greet is a great way to determine if a therapist will be a good fit for you.  For the most part, consultations are informal and a way to get to know each other. It’s an opportunity for the therapist to get a sense of what your presenting challenge is or why you are seeking therapy. A therapist has an ethical duty to refer you to...

Sheila McDonough is one of our very own therapists at Bliss Counselling + Psychotherapy!. Sheila earned her undergraduate degree with a Major in Social Development Studies and a Certificate in Social Work from Renison University College at the University of Waterloo. Sheila is a Master of Social Work with a Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in the individual, couple and family stream. Sheila specializes in individuals and relationships and is a Registered Social Worker and a member in good standing...

WHO IS VALENTINA: Valentina is one of our very own therapists at Bliss Counselling + Psychotherapy practicing individual therapy. For as long as Valentina can remember, people have felt comfortable opening up to her. She has frequently had strangers join her while sitting on a park bench or at a coffee shop. Valentina feels a sense of value in being able to give others a safe space to listen and to understand them and their story.   One day, Valentina connected with a...

Alcohol use is marked by an uncontrolled and compulsive need to drink. We may seek treatment regarding alcohol use, if we; feel a compulsion to drink, feel we no longer have control over how much we're drinking, feel uncomfortable when we are unable to drink. Not having an alcoholic drink may lead to challenges in managing emotions and day to day responsibilities. When seeking treatment for alcohol use, the first step may be to speak with a doctor and to create...

Therapy is envisioned as a safe, unbiased space. In the therapy office, clients are free to explore their past and future, free from judgement or contempt. Clients expect their therapists to provide impartial, supportive advice, without fear that their therapist will discriminate against them in any form. This is an important cornerstone of the practice of therapy. However, this concept can also be misconstrued to mean that therapy is an apolitical practice. Therapists are thought of as neutral actors, who remove...

In your classic portrayal of hypnosis, you might find yourself staring intently at a swinging pendulum, and listening to a series of repetitive phrases until you are lulled into a state of suggestibility. In this state, a hypnotist could make you sing opera or cluck like a chicken. This isn’t a new idea – hypnotherapy has a long history of being falsely represented as a form of mind control. Clinical hypnotherapy, however, is quite different.   Clinical hypnotherapists use hypnosis as a therapeutic...

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) are similar forms of talk therapy, also known as psychotherapy.  Both forms of therapy will help you to more effectively communicate, and both forms of therapy can help you discover more about the condition you’re using psychotherapy to address.  Both cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy are evidence-based, meaning a battery of hard data proves the effectiveness of both forms of talk therapy.  These psychotherapies are proven effective for treating:  Alcohol use disorder GAD (generalized anxiety disorder)  ...

What is Autism Autism is hard to define. Not only because the definition itself changes all the time, but because it affects our perceptions, communication, social experiences, learning and behaviour; essentially, everything you need in order to get through the world.  Any information that is being processed by the senses can easily over-stimulate an individual who is on the Autism Spectrum. On the other hand, an individual with Autism can also have difficulty processing input from their senses. This is why we...

Please note that every person’s experience of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is different. The symptoms and ranges of BPD run both vertically (the number of symptoms experienced) and horizontally (the intensity of how they are experienced). If we also consider other factors that layer and intersect, such as life events (e.g., t/Trauma) and social positions (e.g., financial security, colour of skin, sexual orientation, gender, etc.), our end result is a very unique tapestry of experiences. “People with BPD are like people...